Report blames new checked-bag fees

Have you had trouble finding space in the overhead bins recently? A report in USA Today, citing mainly anecdotal evidence, says that many travelers are, because the major airlines’ new fees for checking even one bag are inducing passengers to try to carry on luggage that they would have checked previously. The story cited an official of the Association of Flight Attendants as saying that its members are seeing more bags dragged aboard and stuffed into overhead bins; and since they are larger bags, they take up more space. The result is that many of the last travelers to board are being forced to gate-check their luggage. There are no government statistics on the number of bags checked vs. the number carried onboard, but the newspaper said it was told by American Airlines that its number of checked bags has declined in recent months from 1.2 per passenger to less than 1.0.